Chapter 20: Blood & Scares

I wake up the next morning feeling awful. My body aches and I feel like I'm going to throw up. I go to move and feel sticky between my legs. Crap. I look under the covers and realize I got my period in the middle of the night. It's Sunday today so it is right on time according to my birth control pack. Spencer wakes up to my movement and rolls over to face me and follows my gaze. I suddenly become very embarrassed and overwhelmed and run to the bathroom before he can say anything. I quickly strip my clothes and jump in the shower. I start tearing up from embarrassment and try not to be too loud because I don't want Spencer to think I'm being dramatic on my period. After a minute I hear a knock on the door. I freeze and don't answer. Spencer knocks again and says "baby, can I come in?" I don't answer and I hear Spencer say "baby I can hear you crying, I'm coming in, okay?" I hear the door open and Spencer walks in the bathroom and says "baby, I started the sheets in cold water, I'm going to take your clothes and put them in with them. You okay?" I sniffle and nod before saying "yeah, Spence, I'll be right out, thank you." He hesitates like he's going to say something, but ultimately decides to take the clothes and leave. I'm grateful for the moment of privacy and let the tears fall and I let myself cry for a couple minutes before actually starting the cleaning part of the shower. I quickly shower and put a tampon in before going out to my room to get dressed. I'm relieved to see Spencer isn't in my bedroom. I get dressed in sweat pants and a big t shirt and walk out to join Spencer. I find him on the couch in the living room with Ryder. He turns to me and smiles softly and says "hey, how are you feeling?" I thought I was fine, but my lips start quivering when I go to talk to him. Through a choked sob I say "I'm so sorry." He looks shocked and pulls me in to sit on his lap and says "hey hey what's wrong?" I sniffle and say "I'm so embarrassed." Spencer looks at me confused and says "why? Menstruation is a very normal occurrence. I'd be more worried if you didn't have a period." I sniffle again and say "I bled all over the bed while we were sleeping." He chuckles and says "baby, you couldn't help that. It's nothing to be embarrassed about." I look at him shocked and say "you aren't grossed out?" He laughs slightly and shakes his head before saying "First of all, again, it's perfectly normal and not something you have any control over. Second of all, I see blood and more gruesome scenes almost every day. Third of all, I literally had blood from your vagina on my dick a little over a week ago and that didn't bother me at all so neither should this." My jaw drops at that last statement and he laughs and then I laugh. He wipes the tears that are left on my face with his thumbs and says "do you feel better now?" I nod and say "thank you, Spence. Most guys wouldn't have handled that situation so well." He smiles and says "I'm not most guys." I smile and say "thank you for starting the laundry." He laughs and says "it sounds like the bar was low before me." I nod before saying "low and on fire." He lets out a hearty laugh at that statement and I look at him and say "but you've exceeded any and all expectations I've ever had for a guy." He gives me a quick kiss and says "I'm glad. You've also exceeded all of my expectations, especially after Lila." I return the kiss before I hear a beeping in the kitchen. Spencer gently picks me up and moves me to sit on the couch before going to the kitchen. He looks at me in the process and says "I started cooking breakfast while you were in the shower because I didn't think you would want to go out or cook after the unexpected start to your morning." I get up to follow him to the kitchen and see that he's made toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, and has mixed fruit ready for me. He hands me a fresh cup of coffee made just how I like it. I look at the spread in front of me and back at Spencer before my lip starts quivering again. He looks at me panicked and says "what's wrong, baby?" I start crying and say "no man has ever made me breakfast before especially not just because I had a rough morning." He chuckles lightly when he realizes and goes to hold me while I cry. I apologize when the feelings pass and he says "it's okay, baby, you've got a lot of hormonal things happening today. I understand." I think to myself that I need to get it together because my periods are never this bad. I apologize again and say "I'm not usually so emotional on my period, I promise this isn't normal. I've had like 3 other periods since we've been together and you had no idea." He doesn't say anything. I notice immediately that he didn't say anything. I look at him and say "what?" He laughs a bit and says "I um figured it out when you were on your periods before this one." I look at him, completely astounded, and say "how? He laughs and says "well, for one, you sport this particular outfit a lot when you are on your period. You also eat more takeout on your period which actually isn't good when you're on your period because it increases your sodium intake and worsens your water retention and makes you bloat more so that's why I cooked you breakfast instead of having it brought in. When you are on your period you watch your shows and movies that make you cry instead of ones that make you laugh or your serious shows. You also bake a lot if you aren't working too much and you nap and sleep in more and opt to not work out more even though exercise is supposed to help ease unwanted period side effects like bloating and cramping." I look at him shocked but impressed at all of his deductions. I say "you knew each time?" He laughs and says "that's what I just said, yes." I look at him and say "and you didn't say anything?" He shakes his head and says "it can be a very personal thing so I didn't want to bring it up if I didn't have to, but those are the weeks I would bring you ice cream and call you more to remind you to drink water and just to check in more because I knew you would probably be more sensitive then." I shake my head and tell him "Spencer, I don't want to be the girl who is insane and emotional on her period. I don't want to be the girlfriend you have to walk on eggshells around for a week." He chuckles and says "Annie, I don't walk on egg shells around you when you're on your period I just try to take care of you. I love you and I don't want you to be more uncomfortable than you already are when you're on your period. I can't take the pain and endure it for you, but I can do what I can to make it more bearable for you." Spencer wipes the tears on my face, yet again, and smiles sweetly at me before saying "let's eat, hmm?" We sit and eat and the food is actually so good. Spencer knows how to make my coffee just right and we spend the breakfast talking and laughing. I sit there and think how I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than sitting here eating breakfast with this man. After we eat breakfast, Spencer gets the midol from my cabinet and gives me a pill without my asking him before taking my plate to the sink to do the dishes. He tells me from the sink "now I know you just want to stay in bed all day, but we should at least go for a walk at some point or we could go to the gym." I groan slightly and say "sometimes I wish my boyfriend wasn't a genius." He chuckles and says "I'm just trying to help your cramps. A good workout can really help." I look at Spencer and say "I have to bribe you with my ass for you to go to the gym with me normally." Spencer laughs and says "I'm just trying to help. If you really don't want to go to the gym or go for a walk I will support you in your laziness." I smile and nod and say "good. Back to bed we go." Spencer laughs and grabs clean sheets from the linen closet on the way down the hall. We set up the bed and crawl back into bed together. Spencer turns on Steel Magnolias on the tv before pulling me in right to lay against him. He uses his hands to massage my lower back. I say "Spence?" He hums in response. "I don't think I have ever loved you more than I do in this moment." He chuckles and tells me to just watch the movie and relax.

•••••

It's been about a month and a half since Spencer and I watched Steel Magnolias together while I was on my period. What worries me is that I still haven't had my next period. Spencer and I have been having sex fairly continuously since we started having sex and now I'm completely terrified I'm pregnant. I feel like I jinxed myself the night I lost my virginity by saying I didn't want to have kids any time soon. I'm on birth control and he wears condoms every time so we should be pretty safe but neither are 100% effective. Spencer is on his way home from a case now and will be home in the next couple of hours. I decided I wanted to talk to him about it before I took a pregnancy test and that I wanted him to be there with me when I got the results. I go to the grocery store and go grocery shopping instead of doing a pickup so I can distract myself from my own thoughts. I decide to buy two pregnancy tests because if it's positive I'm going to want extra confirmation. I give Spencer a call while I'm still in the store to see if he needs anything from the grocery store. He answers on the third ring "Hey, Annie, we are about to land in about 30 minutes." I smile to myself and say "Hey, Spence, I'm at the grocery store and I just wanted to know if you wanted me to get anything specific?" Spencer hums and says "no I can't think of anything, why are you grocery shopping instead of doing a grocery pickup?" I laugh and say "I was just bored Spence and I didn't reserve a spot in time this afternoon." He says "oh okay. Well, I'm just going to head to your place after we land so I'll see you pretty soon, okay?" I smile at the thought and say "okay, baby, see you soon. Love you." He says "I love you, too," and hangs up. I decide I need to start heading to checkout and opt for self checkout like normal but especially because I just don't feel like being judged by anybody for buying pregnancy tests or have an awkward conversation. I checkout quickly and load up the car to head back to my complex. By the time I've checked out my stuff, loaded up my car, and driven back to my apartment complex Spencer has made it to my complex, too. He comes over to help me carry groceries, giving me a quick kiss before grabbing some grocery bags and walking with me up to the apartment. I say "how was the case?" He hums and says "wasn't too bad. We caught the unsub fairly quickly which is good. I always just hate it when it's somebody who is mentally ill and doesn't know what they're doing." I nod and say "I can definitely understand that. I'm glad you're home safe, baby, I've missed you." He smiles at me and says "I missed you, too," as I unlock my apartment. We take the groceries and put them on the kitchen island and as soon as I do, Spencer has swooped me up and placed me on the counter and starts kissing me deeply. I've missed him so I indulge myself even though it's eating me alive that I need to talk to him about this. I giggle after a minute and say "whoa there, tiger, we need to put the groceries up before we get too carried away. I have frozen stuff in here." He chuckles and says "okay, that's fair." As he turns to start putting the groceries up I tell him "baby, uh I actually kinda need to talk to you about something." He turns back to me and raises an eyebrow at my statement and says "okay, what's going on, baby?" I breathe out a little shakily and say "well um I guess I'll just come out and say it I guess um I'm 3 weeks late." Spencer puts down the shredded cheese he was holding and he comes closer to me and says "oh." I laugh to myself that even the smartest of geniuses have moments where they're dumbfounded and speechless. I pull the pregnancy tests out of the groceries and say "I got these tonight. After we put up the groceries I was thinking I should take them." He nods and says "okay, yeah," and picks up the shredded cheese he had abandoned and goes to put it up in the fridge. After like 5 minutes of both of us putting away groceries there's no more stalling. I look at him and say "you've been kinda quiet, you're scaring me." His face softens and says "I'm just surprised is all. I'm not upset." I nod and feel my lip quivering and he comes over to me and picks me up, setting me back on the counter. He says "baby, why are you crying?" I just sniffle and say "I'm just scared, Spencer." He nods and says "I understand." I then say "my parents are going to kill me." Spencer laughs heartily at this and says "Annie, you're not some 16 year old cheerleader, you're almost 26 years old. You have a good job, a good salary, and a steady boyfriend who also has a good job and a good salary. Your parents are not going to kill you. If anything they're going to be excited, I guarantee you." I nod my head and say "you're right." He picks me up off the counter and sets me on the ground and grabs my hand. He says "well, I guess we better find out, hmm?" We walk back to my bathroom with the tests, before we did that I grabbed a disposable plastic cup and brought it with me. We go to my bathroom and I sit down on the toilet and look at Spencer and say "c-can you go for this part? I have a shy bladder." He chuckles and says "okay, baby. I'll be right out here." I pee in the disposable cup and clean up the sides, placing it on some toilet paper on the counter. I go to wash my hands and yell for Spencer to come back. Spencer comes back in the bathroom and I look at him and say "should we do just one or both of them?" He says "let's just do both of them." I nod and open the tests and dip them in the cup before placing the caps back on the tests and setting them on the counter. Now we wait. I set my timer for 3 minutes like the box says. I look at Spencer before embracing him tightly and say "I feel like if I am pregnant it's because of your genius sperm." I feel his body shake in laughter and he says "no matter what the tests say I still love you very much and I'm not going anywhere." I nod against his chest and say "I love you, too, Spence." We stay in our embrace until my timer goes off. I look at him and nod and we both look at the tests on the counter. Both of them say "not pregnant." I sigh in relief and so does Spencer. I look at him and say "I definitely want to have your babies one day just not this soon." He laughs and says "I feel the same way." I look at him and say "I'm going to call my doctor and schedule an appointment to get an IUD tomorrow." He looks at me and says "isn't it really painful when those are placed?" I nod my head and say "but I'd rather have that and the effective birth control that comes with it than be this nervous every time my period decides to be weird." He nods and says "I guess that makes sense." I look at Spencer and say "I will probably need you to take me to the doctor because there's a good chance I won't be able to drive after that." Spencer looks at me in horror and says "it's that bad?" I chuckle and say "I have some friends who say it wasn't bad and some say it was. Do you have to go into the office tomorrow?" He shakes his head and says no. I tell him "I'll call in the morning and see if I can make an appointment for tomorrow. You can just stay in the car I feel like it would be weird if you came in with me for that kind of appointment." He sighs in relief and says "thank you." I chuckle and say "I guess we can have a normal night tonight. Have you had dinner?" He shakes his head and I say "okay let's go cook something." I take his hand and we go back to the kitchen to cook dinner together.

•••••

I call the doctor in the morning and ask for an appointment to get an IUD. They tell me I have to have a consultation with my doctor first and that it will be a couple days before they can get me in. I tell them I understand completely and make an appointment for later in the week on my day off. I hang up the phone and turn to Spencer before saying "looks like you're off the hook for a bit on being my chauffeur." He chuckles and says "I'm sorry they couldn't get you in sooner. I know you're real anxious about missing this last period." I shrug my shoulders and say "now that I've had two negative pregnancy tests I'm not worried about it as much. Sometimes people skip periods when on birth control that was just the first time it happened to me." He nods and says "why don't we have a date day today? We haven't gone out and done something fun together in a while." I nod excitedly and say "what did you have in mind?" He says "well, we could go to lunch and to the Smithsonian, we haven't been there since our second date." I nod again and say "that sounds like fun! You know what we can do after that?" He smiles and says "what?" I grin and say "we could get pumpkins and carve them and watch Halloween movies tonight since it's October now." Spencer smiles big and says "absolutely, I love it!" I return his smile and go to get up and hop in the shower. Spencer follows and says "mind if I join you?" I shake my head and say "but no funny business this morning, I have a date this afternoon and I don't want to be late." He chuckles and follows me into the shower. We wash each other's hair, but I insist on finishing the rest myself. We get out and I wrap my hair up in a towel and my body in a second one. I go to the sink and brush my teeth. Spencer brushes his teeth after I do and I put my contacts in before going to my vanity to do my hair and makeup. Spencer gets dressed and says "I'm going to take Ryder out, I'll be right back." I turn and say "okay, thank you baby." I put on some music and get my hair and makeup done for our little date day. I wear black pants, a colorful oversized sweater that falls off one shoulder, a black bralette under that, and black high heeled boots. I throw on some jewelry and put my hair in a messy bun before going out in the living room to meet Spencer. Spencer stands when he sees me coming and says "you look absolutely beautiful, as always," and kisses me on the cheek. I go crate Ryder and we leave to get an early lunch. We go to a Japanese place for sushi. We sit at the table and order. Spencer is smiling at me and I go "what?" He shakes his head and says "I'm just really happy to be here with you." I blush and say "I'm really happy to be here with you, too, Spence," and grab his hand. Our drinks arrive, we both opted for water and continue our conversation before the food arrives. I ask Spencer "can we go to the art museum at the Smithsonian? I love the Degas pieces, reminds me of when I was younger." He smiles and nods and says "sure, that'll be fun." I laugh and say "museums are always fun when you get to bring a human encyclopedia with you." He laughs and says "I guess that's true. They do have the information in the museums." I laugh and say "but you have all your little fun facts. That's so much better than reading a plaque." He smiles sheepishly as our food arrives. Spencer looks down and realizes he doesn't have a fork after the waiter leaves, he only has chopsticks. I look at him and say "uh oh, looks like you either have to do the ask of shame or learn how to use chopsticks finally." He looks at me and rolls his eyes before saying "I can use them, I'm not good at using them, I just find them pointless when you can use a fork instead." He tries to use the chopsticks and fails miserably before politely asking a nearby waitress for some silverware. I snicker at him and he says "shut up, be nice. I don't laugh at you when you trip over nothing all the time." I gasp and say "yes, you do actually. Don't lie." He laughs and then we enjoy our sushi, his with a fork and mine with chopsticks.

•••••

After we walk through the Smithsonian art museum hand in hand for a few hours, we stop by a local farmers market on the way home to grab some pumpkins. We quickly find pumpkins and I also find a lot of fresh produce I wanted to buy to cook so we get all of our stuff and head back to my apartment. I get my fresh produce and go to cook a new butternut squash soup with my produce from the farmers market for dinner. I also get some chicken ready, too, so we have some protein with our soup. I get some onions caramelizing on the stove for the soup and Spencer goes to get everything ready to carve pumpkins. We decide to do it at my kitchen island and we listen to Halloween themed songs. We decided to watch the Halloween movie after we are done carving and have them lit in the corner while we watch. We are going to carve the pumpkins and cook dinner simultaneously because things have to simmer for a while to make the soup. Spencer plans to carve a pumpkin with triangle eyes and a triangle nose and a zig zag smile. I want to carve a ghost in mine. While the soup is mostly done and simmering for a bit, Spencer and I get all of the pumpkin guts out of the pumpkin. He hates it. I find the faces he makes hilarious when he is pulling handfuls of pumpkin guts and seeds out of the pumpkin and into the trash can. I put the chicken in the oven and then we get to carving. Spencer's is actually pretty good. I messed up on mine at first but she turned out pretty cute. We get the little bitty tea light candles in the pumpkins and leave them lit by the window in the living room. We make our plates for dinner and go to watch a Halloween movie. I look at Spencer and say "scary Halloween movie or like Disney Halloween movie?" He says "let's go scary." I smile and say "what about Halloween? It's a classic." He smiles and says "sure." Spencer, of course, isn't scared at all. I've seen the movie multiple times throughout my life and still jump at every jump scare and hide my eyes when it gets gory. I tear up a bit when the dog is killed by Michael Meyers and Spencer laughs at me. I look at him and say "there are people that deserve death, but I believe all dogs are inherently good, Spence." He laughs and says "okay that's fair. I can't say we've ever had a dog for an unsub." After the movie is over I'm sitting there cuddled up with Spencer. I look at him and say "okay, no more cases I need you to stay here and be my own personal FBI agent." He laughs and says "why, in case Michael Meyers comes to get you?" I nod with a pouty face. He chuckles and says "you don't need me when you have Ryder. He will protect you." I scoff and say "sure, one treat and he's best friends with an intruder I bet. He will probably do some heavy barking though." Spencer chuckles and goes to stand up. He looks at me and says "come on, baby, let's go to sleep. You have to work tomorrow and I have to go in and do paperwork." I bite my lip and look at him before saying "but what if we play hooky." Spencer scoffs and says "no we are both adults and we need money. You like pretty things." I laugh and say "yeah, you." Spencer blushes and then goes "no! Stop that! Flattery won't work this time." I bite my lip and look at him and say "there are other things my mouth can do besides compliment you, Dr. Reid." He chuckles and says "no, not tonight. You need your sleep and so do I." I pout and he says "stop that or I will go sleep at my own apartment." I change my expression and follow Spencer back to my room to get ready for bed. I go to take off my makeup and do my skin care routine and Spencer comes in and kisses me on the temple before saying "I'm going to take Ryder out one last time before bed." I nod and thank him for doing that. By the time he's back with Ryder I'm finishing up brushing my teeth and I go to get in bed. Spencer brushes his teeth and washes his face before climbing into bed with me. I snuggle up next to him and say "I sleep so much better when you're here with me." He kisses the top of my head and says "me, too, baby. Now, get some sleep."